Collectibles that are now virtually worthless

It's like... that's everything in my house.

Stick to art and gold bars, my friends.

It all depends what you are selling. I sold costume jewelry between March and May this year and made enough to buy a washer, dryer, stove, dishwasher and air conditioner. You just need to know which are the more valuable pieces. When I started selling on ebay in 2000, no matter what you listed it sold. 9/11 ended that and it all seemed to go downhill from there. But there are still plenty of pieces that have value.

R3, how do you even begin to learn how to sell stuff on ebay now?

Don’t you have to be 300 pounds just to qualify for those sites?

r5 what does that even mean? do you think sellers just sit at the computer? It takes me a lot longer to buy, clean, research items than it does to sit and list them. Then after they sell they have to be packed and shipped.

r4 the same way anyone did in the beginning.

They’re set dec and props now. Still cool.

My Franklin Mint Princess Diana doll bought my house!

As we just had a thread about, those little "Sillisculpts" from the '70s have no value now.

My mom had a German friend who got her hooked on Hummel figurines in the 1980s. She became obsessed, and would spend hours poring over publications like Antique Trader. She'd have to cajole the money out of my dad, and if he balked at the cost she would throw a tantrum (it was rather ugly). If you bought The Little Umbrella Girl, you just had to buy the boy. And if you didn't have the matching plate and bell, well- what's the point?!

I think as an unemployed housewife, she secretly thought they would be her nest egg should dad ever dump her. She'd just cash them in and be all set.

She still has a china cabinet full of them. But they seem to never have appreciated in value.

Sounds to me like some Ponzi scheme. They probably paid Vietnamese kids a dollar a day to slave away painting them.

Pickle caddies.

All of that “art”.

😂

[quote]Vintage Playbills

There goes the retirement plans of half the population of DataLounge.

The stamps my grandmother collected in plate blocks and sheets are now worth more as actual postage than as collectibles. Too bad I never mail any letters anymore.

What about roll-on deodorant balls?

Hilarious that of all art works they specifically mention that Thomas Kincaide dreck.

Now may be a great time to buy some of those lovely Hummels!

How about those...beanie babies ?

I just returned from a visit to my father. One goal was to get some idea of how his estate was organized, wishes/desires, etc.

He made arrangements at the bank and I got to see his safe deposit box. It was filled with old silver dollars as well as some other coins, most of which he got from HIS Dad’s estate. I felt sad thinking that the value of these items probably isn’t anywhere near what my grandfather hoped it would be by now. I also felt a bit bad for my own Dad for thinking they belonged in a safe deposit box.

But I’d like to know more about selling costume jewelry, R3!

[quote]When I started selling on ebay in 2000, no matter what you listed it sold. 9/11 ended that.

So, for about a year and some change?

I never knew those things were called “Sillisculpts”. They’re not entirely worthless. Right now a lot of seven is going for $13 on EBay. Plus $12 shipping if my math is correct you’re paying $3.57 each for them. Probably what they cost new.

I can get that Hummel aesthetic and German provenance might appeal to people (my grandma had some), but the attraction of Precious Moments eludes me. Sickly sweet sentimentality and butt ugly to boot. They’re lacking in good taste.

r9/r21 - I had looked at completed auctions and they seem to sell for $6-$12. . This one sold for $24.00 plus $12.60 shipping. So it depends.

Beanie Babies

My goodness...

Definitely of their time...

What can I get for my ever-growing miniature Christmas village?

Remember when fraus would stab each other trying grab Beanie Babies? You knew their kids were never going to get those dolls. They would be carefully stowed away, growing in value year by year. Til one day they'd cash them in and buy their dream house.

BeDazzled Blue, fashions by Joey Luft.

My camp stove collection.

Can't believe this crap is still going strong.

It’s all just stuff

I hope it is easily flammable

I'm glad others have mentioned Beanie Babies. Someone should do a documentary on that brief phenomenon. I remember a lot of fraus of my mom's generation (not my own mom, thank god) who were utterly convinced those cheap little rag dolls were going to fund their retirements. LOL.

They aren't dolls, r33, they're...bean bags.

A friends religious sister just adored Kinkade . She spent untold amounts of money on anything Kinkade relates. She just KNEW they were valuable. Fast forward a decade or so and she developed serious and expensive health issues. You can guess the rest of the story.I felt horrifically bad for her honestly.

There was a long story line on 'Better Call Saul' about Hummel figurines. Elder-law expert Jimmy McGill was cultivating potential clients at a nursing home, helping them to write their wills, and there was a lot of discussion about whom to leave certain figurines to.

What am I, chopped higado?

Oh god R37 you just triggered me ! My nephews new wife insisted mom take one of her inherited lladro's since mom had complimented them.I threw up in my mouth a little. So of course mom gets this giant 18 inch one .I have to have it out since they come over,or else itd be long gone. Its fucking resin for gods sake.Her gram paid a fortune for that shit.

Resin, r38?

How about my lovely Avon Cape Cod dinnerware?

I would rather know about worthless things that are now highly collectible! Those flattened pennies must be worth a few dollars each by now, right?

If you collect ANYTHING other than 30s and 40s comic books as an investment, you're bound to be disappointed.

I agree, I think any pre-code comics are worth collecting and have value

So, 1933 to 1955

Give me Millie the Model *any* day...

The Beanie Babies listing reminded me of the soap actor who basically lost his life savings investing in them.

Nodding in agreement with the vinyl record item on this list.

I collect vinyl records and love shopping for them.....can't tell you how many times a person's come into a store I've been in with boxes upon boxes of records and thinks just because they are from the 60s or older they must be valuable....in 99.99999 percent of cases they never are.

They might be if it's in super pristine condition and a rare title - and no, Rosemary Clooney and/or Doris Day aren't rare.

Some of the highest priced resale vinyl LPs these days are actually the ones from the late 80s/early 90s, right around the time LP's originally stopped being produced. There's a record by a British band I'd love to buy, but resale copies for it are as high as $500. And they weren't megasuper popular, either. But that's the point - the fewer the number available, the more it can garner as a price.

Well I am pleased to say that I don't own any of these items, except for some old vinyl records that were bought new for listening to.

I don't do slide shows. It's all bait and switch to sell you junk.

I thought Harry Potter books, first edition releases, would be a great investment. Didn't count on the stupid author going crazy. Bitch.

At first glance, Hummel figurines are cute and innocent, but over time I’ve noticed that they also have a dark energy.

Beanie Babies.

Say no more.

I have all my wealth tied up in Precious Moments figurines, especially the gay ones.

r53 Nah, something pedophilic about some of those. That crosses a line.

" do today's diet-conscious masses even eat cookies?" You can right to hell Mary Shustack you CUNT!

Which band r47?

I have some old obscure Japanese albums given to me. Probably worth zilch.

R51 Did they just put handkerchiefs in their hands so they look less “Heil Hitler?”

I am keeping my Jar Jar Binks action toy in its packaging until I retire.

I collect wheat pennies because I like them. Although, one day when I was really missing my dead husband, I found a wheat penny that was made the year he was born

That wheat penny is priceless to me.

Brown furniture...eurgh....not to be mistaken for genuine antiques, ie pre 20th Century and even then....approach with caution.

I collected comics for 30 years. The day I sold them, for next to nothing, I was devastated. The day after that I was relieved.

This is mostly click-bait.

Things have always gone in and out of fashion. When I was a child, everyone collected carnival glass and Florence of Pasadena figurines. By the time I was an adult, nobody was really interested. Certainly not new collectors. In the 1960s, china dolls were very popular. By the 1980s, doll collectors had moved to French Bisque and the price of china dolls fell. Then china dolls came back into fashion and prices went back up.

Almost NOBODY collects what their parents collect. The children will collect, but not the same things as their parents. They want their own identity. Which means that yes, someone else's children will collect your parent's Waterford, Asian antiques, etc. .

Collectors buy in a price bubble. Once something's value goes out of that bubble, collectors will move on to collecting something else. This is one thing that dealers do not get. It is not in their best interest to have constantly rising values.

The instant collectibles of the 1980s were fraud. In many cases, Steiff for example, the number of the limited edition was actually larger than normal production run. Numbering was a joke because often the early pieces were not painted as well as later pieces. "Firing days" was also a fraud. The Chinese porcelain factories can fire 1000s of pieces in a single day. Rarely is anything purchased new as an investment going to increase in value, including Billy Beer, Spiro Agnew watches, and the Playboy issue with the Jimmy Carter interview. Everyone had the same idea as you did.

Rare will always have value. The Hummel "Little Velma" is still in the $2,000.00 range even though prices for other Hummels have dropped.

Value does not equal interest. The notion seems to be that if an item isn't worth four figures, nobody is interested in it any more. This is false. I know several young people in their 20s who are fascinated by all things 70s. They collect Joan Walsh Anglund, Determined Productions items, Gemma Taccogna, Lucite grapes, etc. The value tends to be $50.00 and under.

Just because the price has dropped does not mean there is no market. The price of Raggedy Ann and Andy items and Disney items have fallen greatly because the is no longer the competition form Japanese collectors. There is still a market for good examples even though prices have fallen.

There is a beanie babies documentary that is pretty fascinating. They really dive into the start. And the owner of the company that made them is a huge piece of work. Watch it.

Millennials are virtually worthless

One of my guilty pleasures is the Precious Moments figurines. They're adorable. But I've never bought or collected them.

The young 'uns today don't want our crap. I have stuff I can't give away.

Gen Z make millennials look like Faberge eggs, R64.

Sadly, my coveted vintage costume jewelry collection is worth only about 1/4 of what it used to be. I think it's because people old enough to appreciate it are dying off. Young people have no feeling for it.

R68, when did you start collecting? If you started collecting in the 80s-90s and it is worth 1/4 of what you paid for it, you are doing well. Remember we had three years of COVID. People were not really thinking about going out and appearances. It is beginning to pick up. Also, think outside the box. A lot of your customers will be in the Costube world. You might do better getting a table at an event such as Costume College.

R56 The Sundays. They only had 3 albums, roughly between 1987-1997, and the last two were really right at that cusp of time where LPs weren't being pressed, so few copies exist of the originals.

(There was a repressing/reissue done on the cheap in 2017 or so that was of terrible quality. Many older albums can have a lovely repress where the sound is good, but sadly not those ones.)

I can't believe American Girl dolls are still a thing, either.

It was kind of a good idea in the beginning, I could see the value in it and/or the appeal. But once Mattel took over they just cheapened it and Disneyfied it.

I lived for several years in Madison, WI which was where the company founder Pleasant Rowland lived. Pleasant really should be every bit a DL icon as Martha Stewart. Same type of shady bitch. Some queen in Madison was interviewed about working with her and said, "Pleasant? Isn't." THE SHADE!

She tried to buy an entire town in NY state somewhere to redo as her own little hometown (see attached article below), and, unsurprisingly, the residents were not having it. She's largely remodeled it to suit her, anyway (it's a town of 700+ people).

Her and her husband (the heir to the Lenscrafters fortune) have pissloads of money - but unlike the kind and benevolent Darlene Shirey, the stunner (excuse her beauty!) who donated to PBS and welcomed us to episodes of Downton Abbey - their philanthropy usually involves projecting their own hideous lack of taste on a project (see: Overture Hall in Madison).

Does any one remember the Pogs? I worked at a store during college that couldn't keep them in stock.

What about all of that Capodimonte crap they used to sell on HSN?

R72 Yes! I remember those damn Pogs. My niece and nephew were obsessed with them and my nephew's first bad move (he's since gone to prison) was being detained by store security at the age of 10 or so because he was thieving those fucking pogs.

I have a lot of my mom’s Rhoda-era costume jewelry. I wouldn’t sell it for the world.

I sold a lot of stuff on eBay at one point after cleaning out my grandfather’s house. People love vintage clothes. A lot of the stuff I peddled was shipped off to Los Angeles, for wardrobe departments. I also found a box of old stereo views with pictures of Alpine, NJ and its environs and some pre-quake San Francisco. Selling all of that one piece at a time paid for a vacation and paid off two credit cards.

R39 I misspoke ! I was thinking of something else.Youre right,its porcelain and I still hate it.

Avoid the collectables market and advise all that you know to do the same unless it's something that they can find genuine joy from ownership. If anything becomes valuable, it will do so on its own. Buying ready-made collectability amounts to being a costly speculative investment, and it's often the tight-financed working class that fall for it. PS, I like seeing contour lounge chairs becoming semi-collectable - they look so comfortable

The things I collect are of varying value, mostly only to me.

I've collected glassware from several companies in the area of PA where I grew up. Anything with the logo of companies where my father worked.

I do love some midcentury/vintage stuff, but mostly small items. Most of it has been picked over to death, especially where I am now.

I do wish I could find a little metal/aluminum/silver (whatever it is) Christmas tree - my mom used to volunteer at a thrift shop in the 80s and you couldn't give them away then. Who knew that if I'd only held onto them and sold them later, I could have put a down payment on a house? LOL

It’s hard to believe Mother’s extensive collection of everything (and I mean everything) is worthless. Regardless, I still treat them as a shrine to Mother, and dust and rearrange them to reflect my mood. I’m just grateful they didn’t declare caftans to be worthless!

I took out a home equity loan and put it all into Thomas Kincaid art.

So now I'm screwed?

Serving platter? Hell, that's a side dish at my house!

Chargers are where it’s at, not serving platters!

I have a big box full of playbills from 1970s-00s in various condition and of various significance. I found out years ago it was now essentially worthless, probably costing me more in shipping and E-Bay fees than what I would actually get for it. Damn it.

The OP's article was sponsored by Dclutter. Hoping to turn a dime on your pessimism.

@83 make a scrapbook or put them on a wall, or donate them to some place that will scrapbook or put them on a wall

I have to say two of the saddest things I have experienced were people finding out there investment in dolls was worthless. In one case a family had purchased the Bradley doll President's wives series (Not even the Mdme Alexander or Franklin Mint versions) thinking that they would increase in value and pay for their son's college.

The other...

R86 - I would live in fear that those demon dolls would murder me in my sleep

The other was a man who was selling his wife's collection of Rustie dolls. These dolls can be as tall as four feet. Apparently, both he and his wife were heavy smokers. The dolls reeked of smoke. Ignore the prices in the link. Wishful thinking. The dolls actually sell for 30-50.00... if you can find a buyer.

My mothe decided to downsize her extensive doll collection (due in no small part to my advising ) and I swear to you 3 different thrifts I tried to donate them to said thanks but no thanks.I finally donated 100 of them to the homeless shelters to give to kids . Mom paid quite a bit for some of them,but when I checked on ebay they were only 20-30 bucks MAYBE.

Why R62 was Little Velma trans?

r19 what do you want to know about selling vintage jewelry? there is a lot of learning involved. Signed pieces are usually worth more than unsigned pieces. Some signatures are worth a lot and some worth nothing.. Some valuable pieces aren't signed at all and you just have to know is how the pieces are put together and what to look for on the back. Jewelry from different time periods have different values.

r20 yes, that was basically it. people were actually selling plain rocks. The reasoning behind it was because buying on the internet was new and people just wanted to buy something/anything.

The antique business is solely a gambling business because something that has value today may have no value next week. Some pieces lose value but if you wait a year they can come back up. Nothing made today is collectible unless it is made in such small quantities or is a single piece because there are so many more people today that they manufacture many more pieces of everything compared to what they made 60 or 70 years ago.

@89 the doll market is cyclical so in 10 years after some gen tik twang influencer discovers them they will be worth a mint

R92, not necessarily. It sounds as if R89's mother bought for quantity, not quality. If the collection was a tonne of 80s and 90s collectibles, decorator porcelain dolls from China/ Walda dolls, and battered plastic dolls she "rescued", it is unlikely the dolls will ever have value.

The Franklin mint stuff looked terrible then

Terrible now

and will be terrible and trashy f o r e v e r

This post smells like mothballs and old newspapers.

r94 There is something to be said for consistency.

R89 Is Tori Spelling

r86 Did they do a nude doll for Melania?

Enjoy your "treasures" for the pleasure they give you while you're kicking. The minute you plotz they're in the dumpster.

“I KNOW WHAT I HAVE!”

My grandmother had a wonderful collection of purple glass bowels and cups and other things. The glass had little air bubbles in it. I assumed it would be called "bubble glass", but that doesn't bring up anything on Ebay. She even had one the size of a melon that was a cigarette lighter - I thought that was probably pretty rare. I think my mom might have sold them, but maybe they're still around. I always thought they might be worth something.

I think these qualify.

I wish I'd gotten one of my grandma's salt and pepper shakers. She had probably 30 sets or more. They were of no real value as collectibles but it would have been nice to have a small piece to remind me of her.

R103 - You could have always clipped a finger. Post-mortem of course.

r101 look up controlled bubbles and bowl, plate or whatever it is you have.

r103 I had a picture that I put up on ebay once. It was listed for worldwide and someone in my home town of under 10,000 people won it. She told me that her grandmother had had one of these but her family had a big yard sale and she didn't get anything. This picture was really old and I told her I was positive that this had been the grandmother had owned.

[quote]My grandmother had a wonderful collection of purple glass bowels

Take her to the emergency room, stat!

I owned my own business - a gift store - from 1987 -2012. From spring 1997 - 2000 /01 I sold Beanie Babies. Whenever a delivery came in, it would sell within an hour or so - and my $2500 rent was paid. They cost me $2.50 and I sold them for $7.50. People would go crazy for them - especially grandmothers. Customers used to wait outside my store (and other stores in the area) waiting for the UPS delivery truck to deliver to me - and check and see if any 'Ty' boxes were being delivered (Ty was the manufacturer). Most of my customers had caught onto the internet craz at the time, and were selling them for $100-200 on eBay, after buying them from me for $7.50 (I wish I was internet savvy back then).

What ruined the BB craze was that the owner Ty Warner, the owner of 'Ty', announced all BB were being retired after the Millennial Bear in 2000. Then he decided to bring them back a year later - and pissed everyone off. (Sort of like Cher doing her farewell concert, and another one two years later). Warner also got into a lot of legal trouble with the Feds - he wasn't paying his fair share of taxes, and back then customers turned on him. So he ruined 'his good name'. (His tax evasion charges were finally settled in 2014, from what I read).

I, myself, have two each of every BB I sold - including the original 'Princess Bear' (for 'Diana') and the Millennium Bear for 2000. I would love to unload these somewhere. Any suggestions - or how much they are worth (especially 'Diana' and 'MIllenium' ) ?

r108 the Princess bear just sold on ebay for, the lowest was 99¢ and the highest was $15.50. The millennial bear sells for between $1.99 and $8.99.

R64 is an eldergay who's mad that millennials don't want his tacky shit

But what about my Madame Alexander dolls?!

You rang?

I had a boat load of Beanie Baby bears in the day. Ended up giving the lot to Toys for Tots 15 years ago.

As with anything, you have to actually know the product in order to sell it. I have sold thousands of comics on eBay and I am endlessly stunned at how other sellers have no idea what they are doing. They don't understand the terms (like calling something a HC TPB...it can't be both a hardcover and a paperback), they assume all comics are interchangeable, they don't understand how condition impact value, etc.

r114=Sheldon Cooper

[quote]I had a boat load of Beanie Baby bears in the day. Ended up giving the lot to Toys for Tots 15 years ago.

Haven't those children suffered enough?

[quote] They cost me $2.50 and I sold them for $7.50.

And they probably included 25 cents worth of materials and 25 cents worth of labor. If that.

[quote] Millennials are virtually worthless

r64 Nah, they might cost you 40 bucks on Santa Monica Boulevard.

[R117] I forgot to mention my 'sales rep' (who called me every Monday morning to place my orders - she never left her house) was getting 10% on every wholesale order for all her territory.

When the 'run' was over by 2004, she told me she set aside her BB commissions, had enough cash in the bank to send her twin boys to a private high school and pay for their private college education, and bought an expensive seaside summer home with no mortgage.

Your Cissy dolls are fine, Linds @ r111.

LOL at the old-timers screeching about millennials. Millennials are 40 years old, how ancient do you have to think they're young kids

My ass

Is old porn collectible and valuable? Asking for a friend.

I’m an old woman, my dear. I know my sex.

I've got a huge, heavy, reel to reel tape player from the late '50's to early '60's. It was allegedly one of the first made. I'm wondering if I could sell it to someone who collects early tech, but I don't know where.

R125 It might be worth something if it has that historical element and is in relatively good condition. You could email or call a shop and find out if they're willing to do an appraisal. An antique shop might do so, as would a record store owner if he was also dealer of old media items like stereos etc.

There was a place in Chicago I bought my first record player from in 2017 when I got back into vinyl - I believe he has or had some reel to reels.

R105 - thanks! What a strange term - controlled bubble glass. It looks like her pieces would be worth about $40 each today. Maybe $1000 altogether.

Most glassware in good/mint condition that's more than 40-50 years old will have *some* value.

My mom earned money in the last years of her life by thrifting and selling glassware that she knew had some value. I don't think she ever had the hugely valuable kinds of stuff that would sell for thousands but she always had pieces in the range of, say, 50-500.

She managed to make on average between 5K-10K a year, not bad for a woman who experienced substantial health problems and could no longer drive or stand for long.

Honestly I think the value of so many things decreased somewhat once price guides and the Internet became more common. More people were trying to sell so value on most everything (except for the rarest items) trended down.

Two words, r128...shipping cost. It's hard to make a profit on eBay with vintage dish or glass ware, because they're heavy and shipping has gotten so expensive. You really need to have a rare or hard to find piece to make it worthwhile. Otherwise, the buyer is paying more for the shipping than for the item itself.

2125 - Look on eBay at past auctions for like items. You can see what sold...and what didn't.

^r125

[quote]I'm glad others have mentioned Beanie Babies. Someone should do a documentary on that brief phenomenon.

Someone did.

I'm at least 50 years old.

Multiple documentaries.

The semen of young virgin teen boys!!

AND r134

The souls of Republicans.

Less than worthless.

Cumbersome.

I have my grandmother's waffle iron from probably the 1930s, and my mother's KitchenAid stand mixer that she received as a wedding present in 1949. And one of the first cassette recorders from the late '60s.

When I scroll past this thread I keep misreading this as “Celebrities that are now virtually worthless.”

Husbands.

I wish I still had my head vases. I never did manage to snare a Jackie in mourning.

I hear Tina Turner wall clocks have dropped significantly in value.

Dish / china sets from Mom and Grandma. In another thread, a poster was pissed at his sisters for not taking deceased Mom's dish set, but he wouldn't take it either.

Vintage Fiesta dinnerware is worth a fraction of what it was ten years ago.

I was surprised that Priscilla Queen of the Desert never jump started a collectible trend for ABBA poop, or celebrity poop in general.

[quote] Vintage Fiesta dinnerware is worth a fraction of what it was ten years ago.

Sell it to me!

Isn't Fiesta ware already reasonably-priced?

VINTAGE fiestaware, kiddo. Especially hard to find certain colors. Not the current stuff found at Macy's.

Or at least seasonably priced?

Fiesta ware was the most hyped shit ever. next to Depression glass. You cant give either of them away now.

My friend has this huge collection of Cher dolls (and 70’s - Star Wars , Charlie’s Angels dolls - like that) If he needs a quick buck he’ll sell a rare outfit of Cher’s or a first edition R2D2. It’s crazy. He says some Cher stuff is worthless - everybody already has it. There’s even a Cher collectable book. Anyway! That’s all I have.

I wouldn't mind having a few legit Fiesta pieces but I ain't paying an arm and a leg.

Same for any of the Corningware kind of stuff that's become off the charts pricey.

R121 some of us are only 30...😔

R70 you lucky bitch! Harriet Wheeler is a Goddess to me, and if I weren’t broke as a joke I’d take one of those off your hands, just to keep and sign over like a fangirl.

R153 Oh honey no, I'm not selling, I'm buying! Specifically a copy of "Blind."

And yes, Harriet is a goddess!

donald's 2022 edition trading cards.

"I know the mail is slow on account of Christmas, but can I pay extra for guaranteed delivery in time for Christmas?" (Dee Plorable, gifting her husband with the full set.)

Enough about these Donald Trump products.

R152 Most of us developed our passions at an early age as closeted 9 and10 year olds and started collecting then in hopes that it might make us “interesting,” catch up!

My mother recently died and all of her mother's large collection of German steins got handed down to the four of us in my generation. I wonder if they're worth anything now. I don't really know anything about the stein market. I know my mom and grandma used to talk about how they had to have certain marks on the bottom.

Over the pandemic I got really into football (soccer), and learned more than I ever cared or wanted to know about trading cards.

Apparently, 95% of cards are worthless or worth little. However, a rare vintage or authentically autographed card of a top player (say, one from early in his career or from a small/defunct/cancelled run of cards£ can fetch hundreds or even thousands on the open market.

I have so much collectible stuff in storage that I inherited. THREE households worth of antiques, furniture, knick knacks, etc. It gives me anxiety and dread every time I go there.

Funko

Astonishingly, there are currently 370,000+ listings (?!) as of this evening on eBay for beanie babies, 41,000 for Cabbage Patch Kids -- I simply cannot believe there is any kind of market for these things in 2022. Perhaps that is way there are so many listings, everyone holding still these things is trying to offload them.

Somone should build a Rockefeller Center sized Christmas tree out of Beanie Babies and set it on fire.

I loved junking and finding treasures many years ago when you could still find things cheap. I watched as what had collected went up and then to my surprise, about 15 years ago the prices started dropping. They still have some value but I sold them on eBay post peak and saw how trinkets and vintage things don’t always hold their value.

You never know what you're going to see at the swap meet.

[quote]I wish I still had my head vases. I never did manage to snare a Jackie in mourning.

I hear the Jackie On Assistance vase is still quite collectible.

I have the Bonnie Franklin "I Hate to Exercise, I Love to Tap" VHS tape. Franklin tapping her little toes away, because...she loves to tap. I betcha it's worth a fortune these days with Franklin gone (but not forgotten).

I also have a copy of Mackenzie Philip's 1984 home movie "I Hate My Step-Mothers, I Love To Have Consensual Sex With My Father". I wonder if it's worth any money ?

Then there's Valerie Bertinnelli's more recent home video, "I Hate My Second Husband, I Love to Eat, and Eat and Eat Until I Shit !" I wonder if that's worth anything these days ?

I did manage to complete my set of Campus Cuties. Vintage, not the reproductions.

R161 The appeal of Funko has escaped me. They all look exactly the same.

R169 Maybe you have Funko Face Blindness.

They all do look alike

I hope I didn't sell my Jane Russell paper dolls too soon.

r127 happy to help and glad that it was what I said so you could find it.

When I started ebay in 2000 it cost $5.80 to ship any package up to 5 lbs. to CA and I am in PA. I never understood why the PO had to increase rates. They said it was because they had too many packages to deal with but they were making 10x's more money too.

R173 yes, when my mom was selling glassware in the late 90s/early 2000s it was not that expensive to ship.

I think cabbage patch dolls were the first high profile toy where people thought “they will be worth money someday” and started buying them and never removed them from their boxes. The dolls and boxes are bulky and space hogs so most of the time the boxes ended up torn and crumpled. There’s a market for then (mostly just the 1983-84 dolls that were produced but nowhere near what people thought it was. The baby land general hospital where cabbage patch kids are born is still a huge tourist attraction in Georgia.

Precious moments were never set up to be valuable collectors items but a sentimental item and gift. My friends daughters have ones for every year or their birthday until they turned 18 and have a few life event ones. They see them as sweet gifts from their granny.

Collectible spoons were just to show off where you went for summer vacation.

[quote]My grandmother had a wonderful collection of purple glass bowels

What a glamorous way to watch one's turds in transit!

r158, a friend has told me that older German beer steins still sell on the Internet. He sold ones from before Germany reunited. Do yours have a metal lid?

Vintage Kenner Star Wars toys from 1978/79, still in the packaging are worth an insane amount, especially the first twelve little action figures, just crazy expensive.

I have over 500 pieces of costume jewelry and a bunch of silk stockings and furs I inherited from my mom. Im not sure what to do with them.

Praying for WU.

I'll take them, r179.

I'm bidding on costume jewelry on Ebay as I type. Wish me luck!

Good luck!

I wonder if newspapers and magazines about the Moscow Murdered Four will be collectible?

Are old Leggo kits NIB gaining in value?

Leggo my Eggo?

R177 - yes, they have metal lids. I don't know how to tell how old they are. One of them is also a music box.

Sylvanian Families aren't really worth as much as collectors assumed, especially given their high retail price point.

They are pretty, tasteful and well-made childrens' toys that age well, though. Much nicer to bequeath a daughter or niece than ratty old Barbies.

How much of the most expensive Beenie Babies worth these days?

I have a collectible plate of Elvis Presley from the late 1980s. I saw it selling at a gift shop in Memphis for $350 in the mid 1990s. The internet made buying and selling so much easier so that the demand dropped and so did the price. It's probably not worth more than $40 today. That's true of several things I purchased in the 1980s and 1990s that I knew had grown in value, but today are worth close to nothing. Except for my record collection, which is quite sizeable, in near pristine collection, and contains hundreds of very rare are sought after items.

Almost nothing collectible retains value. for very long. Even precious jewels do not retain value.

If you collect things it should only be because the collecting itself gives you joy (which for many people, it does). It is stupid to do it for an investment.

[quote]If you collect ANYTHING other than 30s and 40s comic books as an investment, you're bound to be disappointed.

About 40 years ago I bought a lot of Mad Magazines from the late 50s/early 60s, thinking they would be worth a fortune over time. They're still not really worth anything, but I love having them.

I sold half of my Art Deco-Moderne compact collection in January. I'm not an expert but just liked boudior/vanity items and had many happy days spending a couple bucks here and there. Some of them, even in quite marred condition, brought a hundred bucks, so rare items sell. They're a good item shipping wise, too.

Unrelatedly, Ty Warner lives in Montecito and is rumored to have been in the sights of the Duchess of You Know Who.

I’d love to build up a collection, but I can’t decide what it should be. I don’t necessarily need to make money from it, but I wouldn’t want to make a loss.

[quote]If you collect things it should only be because the collecting itself gives you joy (which for many people, it does). It is stupid to do it for an investment.

So true. It took me a number of different collections of dishes to realize that I enjoyed the collecting as much as, or more than, owning and using some of those dishes. This was really brought to my attention when shipping costs went so high, people stopped buying.

I ended up giving things away to people who were just starting out in life and needed these things. I had a friend who was a social worker and found good homes for two of my collections of dishes, and I put another on Craigslist's free stuff. I liked the guy I gave those to so much, I'm putting him in my will to receive all my dishes once I'm dead.

Louis XIV, Louis XV and Louis XVI retains value. Vintage Couture. Even vintage ready to wear if it's iconic. For example Seditionaries, etc. Rare and in good shape perfume has good value nowadays. Doesn't even need to be that old. Just discontinued and difficult to find. For example original bottles of 80s classics, unopened, or opened, but in package, full, and still smelling good.

I have two new pieces being delivered today for one of the two sets of dinnerware I decided to keep. Two au gratin dishes. Can't wait.

- r195